September 28, 2020
Oh MY…
The Dark Lady by Anna Katrina Zinkeisen
Her bow inspires me…
The Dark Lady by Anna Katrina Zinkeisen
She Just LOOKS Serious…
She always has, even as a child. She wasn’t a sober child, really. But her resting face was always pensive…
But she wisely took a positive aspect from this impression that she left – she could dress in practical, gorgeous dark colors – they suited both her coloring and her demeanor!
Thus, when she was forced into the head office for a couple of days of 1st quarter 2021 planning (a woman can dream!), she has no trouble packing:
yes, some of this will look very familiar, but quite different when different colors are involved!
Heather Khaki sweater-blazer – J.Crew; scarf – Klements; earrings – Latelita; brooch – Dana Buchman; royal plum tee – L.L.Bean; handbag – Talbots; suede driving moccasins – Talbots; toasted coconut jeans – L.L.Bean
These meetings aren’t overwhelmingly dressy, but it’s always smart to be prepared for the lovely dinner to which they’re always treated!
She’s has her goals for next year written up for MONTHS – practically from the first weeks of the pandemic. She wanted to get her thoughts written out and ready for consideration, while the potential was still fresh in her mind, and the drudgery hadn’t yet set in…
Pearl earrings – Aqua; burgundy cashmere crewneck – J.Crew; black shirt – Lands’ End; pearl pendant – Sterling Forever; scrunchie – Ganni; mask – Bespoke; Fair Isle cardigan – Baum und Pferdgarten; heather natural short-sleeved sweater – J.Crew; necklace – Chico’s; black skirt – J.Crew; socks – Natori; tights – J.Crew; driving loafers – Aerosoles; ballet flats – Clarks; corduroy pants – Lands’ End
The first night in her hotel, she’s frankly thrilled with how the first meetings went – there was a lot of consensus around her ideas!
So unpacking and arranging her travel capsule wardrobe was just one more little bit of satisfaction for her – more of the fruits of careful planning:
As always, a well-planned travel wardrobe means that you’ve got different wants to combine your wardrobe – ready for a change of weather, or occasion, or a dreadful “garment failure!”
If she travel for a longer period of time, she’s going to have to find a blouse with a big luscious bow at the neck, eh?
love,
Janice
p.s. Four years ago, we were looking at a Touch of Turquoise, using it to accent a full range of neutrals!
Like this article? Save it to Pinterest!
Gosh that fair isle jersey really is the star of this capsule. Nice!!
A stunning picture of a beautiful lady. You can almost reach out and touch the velvet scarves that she’s wearing. Love all the accessories in this wardrobe and the Fair Isle jumper brings everything together. Suede shoes are like velvet for the feet!
Just to add that although I wear occasional black trousers, I would favour dark charcoal grey or chocolste brown. Not sure what I’dswap for the camel, possibly a dark denim blue ?!
The look back is great too, though the turquoise would have to be a bit less intense for me. The turquoise and brown reminded me of a turquoise and dark brown tunic and trousers that I had when I was a kid in the1970’s ?
This reminds me of my favourite post, with the painting, Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Cranach the Elder. It’s all these gorgeous accessories that do it for me. Our heroine feels like the successful daughter of the woman in the Cranach posts. As such, I feel she’d go for just a notch up on the clothing dressiness factor. Dress pants, less casual patterned cardigan, burgundy silk blouse, that type of thing. What a wonderful fall collection this is.
I love to dress up in satin and velvet but where would we go? Restrictions are becoming more draconian by the day in the UK.
Perhaps Janice might create a story of pure escapism where our heroine could wear luxurious fabrics….
Well that’s torn it. I was going to fade out my burgundy and then I see this. Absolutely gorgeous and I have a gold Lands End gilet which will also get a stay of execution. I will never get to a capsule wardrobe at this rate but who cares when I am faced with so many brilliant ideas from you. Fabulous.
Cherry, I so relate to this comment. I figure if we are learning how to fall back in love with and/or get more use of things we already own, that’s a win!
Though not my palette, it’s so luscious. Love the painting… and that bow!!!
This post really spoke to me. There’s something so calming and comforting in these classic color combinations and this style clothing. Classic, classic, classic. Always a winner in my book.
Thank you, as always!
Beautiful colors for the woman that can wear them!
The black and beige combination is not not doing it for me, but I LOVE the plum-burgundy T, handbag, and loafers. The individual pieces are very nice and they work so well together. I would happily build on them for a French 5…I’m thinking a shades-of-pink-and-burgundy floral scarf and a cardigan to match the top. I do not think this heroine would look disdainfully if a plum-burgundy cashmere cardigan to were to appear in her wardrobe!
I’m intrigued by the necklace. I have read up on various techniques for making cylindrical fabric beads, but I was struggling a bit to visualize how to use them in a necklace that fits my style. Something about this simple 2 strand version is very appealing…though I would not make the beads quite so large, I think, on the more colorful version of this I’m now seeing in my head.
Re: the fair isle sweater. This one functions wonderfully as a bridge piece…but I still don’t like it. I did a google image search and huh, I guess I just don’t like fair isle patterned sweaters very much. I don’t know why, since I feel like I’m very happy with almost any kind of pattern. Some fair isle sweaters are more acceptable than others (the ones with rabbits–so cute, yes, please!), but this one in particular is a great example of a pattern I really do not like at all. It’s just too busy-looking somehow…which is not something I would expect ME of all people to say! Something about the pattern being very busy, but neither graphical/geometrical nor feminine nor organic, firmly pushes the hard pass button. Fascinating!
Seeing such a variety of well-thought-out, curated wardrobes on this blog continues to be an education. And I think wardrobes like this…where some things I love, some things feel meh, and other things I really dislike…are perhaps the ones I learn the most about my own style preferences from. And that’s really important because no matter how versatile a garment might be, or how “perfectly” it might fit into our wardrobe, if we don’t see ourselves wanting to wear something and feeling great while doing so, then it’s truly not versatile or perfect for us.
That artwork is so romantic and moody I hoped there might be velvet and lace involved in the associated wardrobe.
Ah, if I could find them, there would be! The retail markets right onw are so strange… There’s a ton of really cheap stuff available, and TWO tons of super-expensive stuff, but that normal, middle-ground where most of us shop is pretty sparse, and limited to basics.
Maybe closer to the winter holidays?
hugs,
Janice
I went into a chain store in my nearest town today fully expecting to see a nod towards autumn/winter. They had a whole wall of new swimwear (!) and lots of ‘new season’ summer stuff – shorts, tee-shirts, crop trousers and flimsy dresses. Hardly anything that you could call autumnal. Are we due an unseasonal heatwave? Yet I’ve seen Christmas stuff in other shops. The world turned upside down in more ways than one.
I would also love to see this with silk, satin, velvet, and cashmere! Those burgundy and plum pieces are so beautiful, and nice with black. It’s funny how we all have reacted – positively and negatively – to the fair isle in this wardrobe. I am quite partial to almost all fair isle, snowflake, reindeer sweaters, but not this particular one. Too much camel in it for my taste. But of course it coordinates well with the wardrobe. – nancyo
Perhaps Janice might do a blog with luxurious fabrics for Christmas/New Year. Surely, we can find a reason to to dress up sometime this year?
I would just love this done in luxurious fabrics!!
This is a color combination that I have been leaning toward, and hoping to see from you. It’s a hard combination to pull off, though, because the black and burgundy combined quickly becomes overly weighted because of the darkness. I was hoping that the camel and stone colors would balance that, and mostly it seems to. One thing is that you rarely see this combination in patterns – just solids, which gets boring. I agree with someone who said earlier that they’re not fond of the Fair Isle sweater. Instead, I’m keeping my eyes peeled for a tee or top in a pattern that combines these colors. Thank you for this post.
Yes! This is completely where I’m trying to go with my wardrobe. The black/camel/cream neutrals and that deep tone of accent color. I’ve teals in that tone as well that would work wonderfully as a second accent. Although Janice’s practical wardrobe matches my level of dressiness more than the Dark Lady’s does.